CAPE-OPEN UPDATE, Volume 10

CAPE-OPEN UPDATE is a publication of the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network (CO-LaN), a non-profit consortium for the development of the CAPE-OPEN standard.

CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network.  Annual General Meeting.  17-18 February 2005

Como, Italy

Attendees: Aguirre, Fernando, HTRI; Banks, Peter, BP; Bargiacchi, Michele, Honeywell; Baur, Richard, Clarkson; Bousquet, Jacques, TOTAL; Braunschweig, Bertrand, IFP; Cameron, David, Fantoft; Colantonio, Maria Celeste, Shell; Déchelotte, Stéphane, ProSim SA; Dickinson, Ray, Shell; Drewitz, Werner, BASF; Espuña, Antonio, UPC; Guérillot, Dominique, IFP; Halloran, Michael, AspenTech; Holmes, Joe, HTRI; Jerome, David, SimSci; Johns, Andy, TUV NEL; Keeping, Ben, PSE Ltd.; Klein, Ronald A., BASF; Knight, Mike, BP; Kooijman, Harry, Shell; Koup, Tom, SimSci; Lichtenauer, Mark, HTRI; Merk, Werner, DOW; Paen, Didier, RSI; Perreira, Donald, BP; Pons, Michel, CO-LaN; Puigjaner, Luis, UPC; Roux, Pascal, IFP; Scott, Alan, TUV NEL; Taylor, Ross, Clarkson; Urbano, Francisco, UPC; Vacher, Alain, ProSim SA; Woodman, Malcolm, BP;

Of the original delegates, the following were unable to attend due to illness: Jens Schmidt, Dow; Pierre Sere Peyrigain, Innoven; Bryn Stenhouse, BP; Matthius Pogodda, TUHH.

This meeting combined the normal Annual General Meeting with a celebration of 10 years of CAPE-OPEN. All delegates were presented with a CAPE-OPEN watch to commemorate this anniversary.

Overall Agenda

·        Meeting introduction, report on CO-LaN activities, 2004 budget, 2005 provisional budget, Management Board election

·        Interoperability Showcase

·        Presenting the 2004 CAPE-OPEN award to Pascal Roux

·        Interoperability Workshop

=======================================================

Status Report – Werner Merk

Membership :  CO-LaN has 7 full members and 31 associate members. This represents a gain of 1 full member and 5 associate members. The issue of increasing the full membership towards the target of 15 remains a high priority for the Management Board, but all members were also asked to spread the word to their contacts.

Endorsement letters were obtained from:

Informatique et Procédés (SFGP/SCI)

VDI-GVC

EFCE CAPE Working Party

EGAS

Management Board: The Board members in 2004 were: W. Merk, M. Pons, P. Banks, R. Klein, K. Irons, B. Braunschweig, H. Pingen, C. Colantonio  

The Board had monthly phone conferences and quarterly physical meetings, which dealt with decisions about Request For Bids and contracts, the 5 missions of CO-LaN and votes for new members. Contracts have been put in place for consultancy services (AspenTech) and web hosting (Top Concepts). The latter contract cut the cost of web activities by a factor of 10. As well as contracts let by CO-LaN, free licenses for testing and demonstration purposes have been granted to CO-LaN for:

• Aspen Plus, Aspen HYSYS, Distil, ComThermo by AspenTech
• SIMULIS by ProSim SA
• PPDS by TUV-NEL
• gPROMS by Process Systems Enterprise
• MultiFlash by Infochem
• PRO/II by SimSci-Esscor
• INDISS by RSI

Consultancy Services:

Objectives:

o       Assist developers to achieve CO compliance

o       Secure CAPE-OPEN expertise in supplier companies

Four consultants have been approved:

o       AspenTech: Michael Halloran

o       RSI: Didier Paen

o       Jean-Pierre Belaud

o       UPC: Luis Puigjaner

During the year, 8 days of consultancy were approved to assist component development by AixCAPE, ChemSep, SolidSim and the creation of the CAPE-OPEN Logger prototype.

Marketing & Dissemination :

o       The CAPE-OPEN Award 2003 was made to Hans-Horst Mayer for his services in establishing and delivering CAPE-OPEN.

o       The CO-LaN website was maintained as a primary vehicle for disseminating CAPE-OPEN information, although the hosting organization was changed at the end of 2004.

o       Conference participation:

o       ESCAPE-14

o       PSE User Meeting

o       SimSci-ESSCOR European User Meeting

o       PPEPPD 2004

o       AspenWorld 2004

o       ProSim User Meeting 2004

o       The 1st US CAPE-OPEN Meeting at US EPA was successfully held in Cincinnati.

o       CO Update newsletter: issues 7, 8 and 9 were published.

SIGs: There were 3 active SIGs, which are reported in the Showcase session.

Training :  During the year AspenTech has indicated that it is no longer interested in developing CAPE-OPEN training courses. CO-LaN will now take responsibility for getting such materials developed.

The meeting endorsed the Status Report.

Financial Report – Michel Pons

During 2004, income has been larger than expenditure:

• Income: 72,401.50 € (fees = 70,000 €)
• Expenditures: 28,704.15 €

This has resulted in accumulated funds:

• Reserve available end 2003: 121,850.94 €
• Excess 2004: 43,697.35 €

The 2004 budget details are summarized below and reflect the activities described above.

Expenditure                 28,704.15 €

Technical                    15,548.00 €

Dissemination              10,078.51 €

Administration                3,077.64 €

Income                       72,401.50 €

Subscriptions                70,000.00 €

Bank interest                 1,375.13 €

Miscellaneous                1,026.37 €

Surplus                        43,697.35 €

Balance sheet for 2004:

Current Assets                                     Claims

Bank                     156,100.95 €            Accumulated Funds            121,850.94 €

Membership due        10,000.00 €            Surplus                              43,697.35 €

                                                         Creditors                                552.66 €

Total                     166,100.95 €            Total                               166,100.95 €

The meeting endorsed the Financial Report.

Proposals for 2005 – Bertrand Braunschweig

The main problem in 2004 was the low level of expenditure relative to plan.  This was due in part to a shift in timing of the AspenTech consultancy contract, but was mainly due to a lack of human resources to drive the planned expenditure.  A significant step towards addressing the resource problem has been the recruitment of a part-time Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dr Michel Pons.  The plan for 2005 is:

o       Continue consultancy actions

o       Increase spending to address missions

o       Tester maintenance

o       Interoperability SIG: development support tools (to be funded)

o       Polish and finalize SIGs work (with funding from CO-LaN)

o       Building on prototypes

o       Complete Dynamic UNIT and Thermo 1.1 Specifications

o       Consult users on extensions/implementations needed

o       e.g.  Petroleum Fractions / Solids

o       Straighten up the website contents

The financial resources available in 2005 are:

Member Fees                         70,000€

Bank Interest                          2,262€

Accumulated Funds               165,548€

Available                                237,810€

The proposals in more details are:

Consultancy services: 40 K€

o       AspenTech 1st full year: 31,096 €

o       Other Consultancy services: 8,000 €

Conferences: 6 K€

o       Sponsor travel expenses of one person for presentations at conferences.

o       4 conferences, 1500€ each.

Website hosting fee:   1 K€

CO Update newsletter: 0 K€

The conferences and meetings that have been identified so far are:

o       ESCAPE-15: Consultancy scheme

o       ICheaP-7: Tools to help migrate to CAPE-OPEN

o       PSE User meeting: gPROMS thermo socket, unit plug and socket

o       WCCE 2005: Dynamic unit interface specification

o       2nd Annual U.S.  CAPE-OPEN meeting: Hosted by National Energy Technology Lab

o       RCCT 2005: How can CAPE-OPEN help thermodynamic experts?

Standard Maintenance: 15K€

o       Polishing Dynamic UNIT and Thermo 1.1 specifications.

Testing: 40K€

o       Maintenance of CO-Tester Suite: 15 K€

§        PPDB: DIPPR is working on CO compliant version

§        Needs some modification after 1.0 IDL revamping

§        UNIT: to make it 1.0 compliant

§        MINLP: same needs as for PPDB

o       CAPE-OPEN Logger: 25 K€

§        Specification development and contract management

Training Facilitation: 5K€

o       Support to training services and promotion: 5 K€

Administration: 42K€

o       CTO salary: 30 K€

o       Provision for various administrative costs: 2 K€

§        Taxes: 400 €

§        Bank charges: 150 €

§        Miscellaneous: 450 €

§        Additional software: 1000 €

o       Provision for MB meetings: 4 K€

§        4 meetings x 1000 € = 4 K€

o       AGM expenses and marketing tools: 6 K€

The budget, in summary, is as follows:

Accumulated funds   165 K€

Expenses                149 K€

Income                    72 K€

Deficit                     77 K€

Projected accumulated funds 31.12.05: 88 K€

Following the low-key activity in 2004, the Board proposed to increase efforts to recruit new full members and so adopt a growth strategy in 2005 and beyond.

The meeting endorsed the 2005 budget.

Elections of Management Board for 2005

The Board elected for 2005 was:

Dow:                     Werner Merk (President), Kerry Irons (Member)

BP:                        Peter Banks (Secretary), Malcolm Woodman (Member)

TOTAL:                  Jacques Bousquet (Member)

IFP:                       Bertrand Braunschweig (Treasurer)

Shell:                     Ray Dickinson (Member)

BASF:                    Ronald Klein (Member)

Companies with more than one member on the Board only have one vote, in accordance with the By-laws of CO-LaN.

CAPE-OPEN Award 2004 : The CAPE-OPEN 2004 award was made to Pascal Roux (IFP) for his sustained and innovative contribution to the infrastructure and implementation of Open Process Simulation.

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